Matches to Make After UFC 166

Cain
Velasquez never looked more able to carry the mantle of
“Baddest Man on the Planet.”

Velasquez retained his Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight
crown with a fifth-round technical knockout against Junior dos
Santos in the
UFC 166 main event on Saturday at the Toyota Center in Houston,
widening the gulf between himself and the rest of the division. The
end came 3:09 into round five after a barely recognizable dos
Santos struck his head on the canvas during a failed attempt at a
guillotine choke.

Dos Santos fired his best shots, and though some of them found
their mark, he could do nothing to slow the pace of his unyielding
adversary. He was the china shop to Velasquez’s bull. The champion
kept dos Santos bottled up against the cage for much of the match,
torturing him with short punches to the head and knees to the body
and legs. Velasquez nearly finished it in the third round, where he
dropped the challenger with a right hand behind the ear and pounced
with ground-and-pound. That the Brazilian survived the onslaught
only served to prolong the gnarly beating. At times, it was
difficult to watch.

By the time it was over, blood poured from a gash on dos Santos’
right brow, and his left eye was nearly swollen shut. Cut across
the bridge of his nose, Velasquez shrugged off the blood, seeming
to revel in the wound. He cared only that his hand was raised yet
again.

With Velasquez having emerged from his trilogy with dos Santos as a
stronger, more respected champion, attention turns to a potential
showdown with Fabricio
Werdum.

A two-time Abu Dhabi Combat Club Submission Wrestling World
Championships gold medalist, Werdum has won all three of his fights
since returning to the UFC in February 2012. The 36-year-old
Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt last appeared at UFC on Fuel TV 10
in June, when he submitted AntonioRodrigo
Nogueira at Paulo Sarasate Gymnasium in Fortaleza, Brazil.
Widely recognized as one of MMA’s premier submission grapplers,
Werdum has showcased improved standup skills in recent outings.

Dos Santos, meanwhile, figures to need a considerable amount of
time to recover. According to preliminary FightMetric data, he
absorbed 274 total strikes, 123 of them significant. When he
returns to the cage, a battle against the loser of the forthcoming
UFC 168 scrap between Josh Barnett
and Travis
Browne could be in order. No matter what direction the UFC
takes with the 29-year-old Brazilian, he will likely remain a
fixture as a top 5 heavyweight.

In the wake of UFC 166 “Velasquez vs. Dos Santos 3,” here are five
other matchups that ought to be made:

Daniel
Cormier vs. Phil
Davis: Cormier took care of business in his final
appearance before a planned move to 205 pounds. The 34-year-old
American Kickboxing Academy export roughed up “The Ultimate
Fighter” Season 10 winner Roy Nelson with
his multi-pronged offensive repertoire, which included power
punches, grueling clinch work, takedowns and a steady diet of
kicks. Cormier will become an immediate person of interest when he
arrives in the light heavyweight division, and he has already had
words with reigning 205-pound champion Jon Jones. A
four-time NCAA All-American wrestler at Penn State University,
Davis registered the most significant victory of his career in
August, when he captured a controversial unanimous decision over
Lyoto
Machida at UFC 163.

Gilbert
Melendez vs. Khabib
Nurmagomedov: Melendez emerged victorious from the
most-talked-about UFC fight of the year, as he outdueled Diego Sanchez
and earned a unanimous decision over “The Ultimate Fighter” Season
1 winner. With his first Octagon win behind him, the former
Strikeforce champion can focus on moving forward in the lightweight
division. The unbeaten 25-year-old Nurmagomedov has compiled a 5-0
mark since entering the UFC, shedding his prospect label with
victories over Kamal
Shalorus, Gleison
Tibau, Thiago
Tavares, Abel
Trujillo and Pat Healy.

Roy
Nelson vs. Mark
Hunt-Antonio
Silva loser: Seemingly stuck in gatekeeper mode, the
slimmed-down Nelson was no match for the all-around skills of the
aforementioned Cormier. The 37-year-old Las Vegas native has now
suffered consecutive losses for just the third time in his career.
Still one of the UFC’s most bankable heavyweights, Nelson figures
to catch high-profile bouts for the foreseeable future. Hunt and
Silva will lock horns in the UFC Fight Night 33 headliner on Dec. 7
in Australia.

Gabriel
Gonzaga vs. Frank
Mir-Alistair
Overeem winner: Gonzaga, who once challenged Randy Couture
for the UFC heavyweight championship, has quietly rattled off five
wins in his past six appearances. The 34-year-old Brazilian
jiu-jitsu black belt needed a little more than 90 seconds to put
away Jackson’s Mixed Martial Arts export Shawn Jordan
with punches, putting him in position to pursue more meaningful
prey. Mir and Overeem are scheduled to collide at UFC 169 on Feb.
1.

John Dodson
vs. Ian
McCall-Scott
Jorgensen winner: Few flyweights inspire fear like
Dodson. “The Magician” worked his magic on promotional newcomer
Darrell
Montague, as he flattened the Millennia MMA representative with
a blinding left cross in his first appearance since failing to
unseat 125-pound champion Demetrious
Johnson. McCall will welcome Jorgensen to the flyweight class
at UFC on Fox 9 in December.